Join a thousand others on the streets by taking a stand.
Would it make you do something about babes and mothers
dying?
Or help little ones around you do sums, perhaps even
stop you from lying
That everything’s ok. Look! There’s not a cloud in
the sky!
Only there’s something wrong with that answer & you
know the reason why.
---
It’s winter in Zimbabwe but not the typical winter of the West. For one, though temperatures are cooler than usual, the sun still shines most of the time. Even then, the days are still long. They are especially long for those of the population living below the poverty line, for children can’t afford to go to primary school, and for those languishing because they have HIV / AIDS. Good health care is a luxury most of the country’s population of 11.6 million can’t afford, particularly when they are worried about how to get basics such as mealie meal, margarine, sugar and cooking oil. With problems like these, there is little energy left to spare on checking whether the environment is doing better than you.
These are some of the issues addressed by the Millennium Development Goals. The MDGs themselves are like a faint rainbow in Zimbabwe’s wintery sky. At first glance, it might seem your eyes are playing tricks on you and you could conclude that you must have imagined the rainbow in the first place. But with a little squinting and a more concentrated look, you find that the rainbow is real. While not much progress appears to have been made in addressing the MDGs, Zimbabwe is one of the 191 member states that has adopted the Millennium Declaration to ensure “that globalisation becomes a positive force for all the world’s people” including its own. This, like a rainbow after a storm, offers a faint hope. The challenge then is to begin to turn this hope into a reality.
The first step is to take a personal inventory and asking “what can I do personally to achieve the millennium development goals - even in a small way?” Any ideas can seem like throwing a pebble into a large river. Small, irrelevant and causing a few ripples before sinking. But it is useful to recall the United Nations Development Programme statement: “To you I say, consult not your fears, but your hopes and aspirations. Think not about what you have tried and failed, but rather about what is still possible for you to do.”
With this in mind, I will support the Global Call to Action Against Poverty by wearing a white band on 1 July for the G8 Summit and 10 September for the UN Millennium Summit. I will also attend prayer meetings and pray about the MDGs with people in my community. On a practical note, I will set aside a small portion of my income monthly for extremely poor relatives, poor people in my church or charities that require assistance.
With regards to what I can do in relation to government, I have come up with a story outline incorporating MDGs for an animated movie. I hope to finish my script, obtain funding and make the movie as I feel it could be used to lobby government and influence it to make a greater commitment to the MDGs. I have chosen to work with a concept that involves children because approximately 54.5% of Zimbabwe’s population is under 20 years of age.
The story is based on Article 8 of the MDGs (i.e. Develop a Global Partnership for Development). I chose this article because if it is correctly addressed, Zimbabwe can begin to address all the other articles such as poverty reduction, better health, environment sustainability, education etc. For children, this article is interesting as it deals with different countries – children love stories about traveling to different lands and going on journeys. It offers excitement, adventure and mystery. At the same time, focusing on this article provides an opportunity to teach them about the unique traditions and cultures of various countries while introducing them to economic principles in an exciting way.
The story itself is about African twin girls (non-identical), Patty & Ruby who come from the high density suburbs (townships) of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Life is colourful and spent playing many kinds of exciting games. Their father (baba) is a truck driver - which is very exciting as he has many tales about the different countries he visits. Once a year, they get a special treat and have a week’s holiday in any South African country using free transport and accommodation provided by the National Railways. Their mama is a kind soul loved by most people in the township because she is welcoming and always loves to give to those in need. She looks after poor extended relatives on and off and is expecting the twins’ baby brother. The girls are looking forward to meeting him and often sing to him after mama has been telling them stories and folktales (ingane).
One day, Baba doesn’t come home from a trip. Mama becomes anxious and this induces the premature birth of their brother, Fortune, at seven months (introduction of Maternal Health goal). Her health fails and her sister Auntie Maggie from the rural areas comes to look after her and the girls. She leaves her own children with her husband, Uncle Thabo.
After a few months, Baba’s company stops giving them his salary as he has not been found. Life becomes hard and though neighbours try to be helpful – the family starts experiencing poverty (introduction of goal about poverty and extreme hunger). The girls are very hungry and Mama is not getting better. When school opens for them to go to grade one, which they have been looking forward to, they do not have money for fees although they have uniforms and books bought when life was good and Baba was at home. They manage to go to school for a few days but are sent home for non-payment of fees (introduction of goal about primary education). They come home crying and feel ashamed to face their friends and people who have seen them going to school in their neighbourhood. When they get home, mama has a little more strength than usual and starts telling them a story about the importance of development and how the world economy works (introduction of goal about global partnership for development). She explains that if they lived in a welfare state, they wouldn’t have to worry because they could still go to school and survive without working. But not in Africa – she says because of the many debts the continent owes. She explains that this is just like the debts their family owes and can’t pay because of the crisis they are in.
The girls understand and wish they could do something to help Africa and their mama. They get quite sad because they can’t think of anything – their wire cars and dolls wouldn’t provide enough money. Mama is touched and tries to divert their attention and cheer them up. She starts to tell them a story they are fond of – about their Great Aunt uNaAnna. They love stories about her because she knew how to heal people and because she was very wise and helped people solve problems. She now lives in a country on another continent (introduction of developed world) ruled by a rich King who is friends with many other rich kings from many different continents except Africa. Mama wishes she could contact her but doesn’t have her phone number or email address – only the suburb where she lives but no city, although she knows the country. Mama herself gets sad and starts becoming weak again and falls back into her bed. Aunt Maggie comes in and shoos the girls out saying they shouldn’t do that to their mother.
The girls go to the bedroom – they don’t feel like playing and just keep bouncing a tennis ball wondering what they can do. They feel so sad! Later that night they go to sleep and Patty awakes close to midnight to see the room flooded by light. She wonders where the light is coming from and decides it must be coming through the window. She tip toes there and moves the curtain so she doesn’t wake Ruby. Looking up, she sees a full moon and smiles. To her surprise, it smiles back and the stars around it seem to form arms which beckon her to come. She shakes her head but the moon and stars carry on. She closes the curtain and runs back to her bed in fear and waking up Ruby in the process. Ruby asks her what the matter is and she tells her about the strange phenomenon. Ruby, who is not as timid as Patty, and far more gung-ho rushes to the window at once and sees the same thing. “WOW” – she says and tells Patty they must go at once. Patty is not sure but after a while, Ruby persuades her that maybe this could be the way to save their mama and Africa. “Oh all right then” says Patty and they take out the books from their new school satchels and pack a few clothes, sleeping bags, colouring books and pencils. They tip toe to the kitchen and get water – there is not much food and they decide mama needs it more. Aunt Maggie is sleeping in mama’s bedroom to take care of her and Fortune at night but evidently she is not – she is snoring like a pig! They leave them a note and tell them not to worry – they will be back in a few weeks with uNaAnna. She will make everything fine.
When they go out, they follow in the direction of the moon and stars and find themselves in an open field. “Now what?” they think and just then the wind begins to blow through the tall grass in the field. It’s singing a song (African sad melody) of goodbye to their mama and Aunt Maggie. As the Savanna grass bends under the effect of the wind, the motions are of hands saying goodbye. At the end of the song, the grass whispers directions to where they need to go next.
The rest of the story is about their travels through different countries and the way nature guides them to uNaAnna so she can talk to her King to save it from destruction through pollution and environmental degradation caused by a wicked leader from under the earth called uBubi.
In the course of their journey, the children discover that uBubi has kidnapped their father who was transporting gold on his last train trip and has tied him up in his tightly guarded palace. He has stolen the gold and the girl’s father is suspected of having run off with the gold by his employers. For this reason, they have punished him by not paying his family a salary. They figure out that their mother wanted to protect them and didn’t tell them.
As they travel the different aspects of nature, from the moon and stars and the grass to the rain, trees, sunflowers, bees and sea, they meet lots of people in other countries suffering because they have big debts with rich countries. They share their resources with the children and do their best to help – in return that the girls don’t forget to mention them when they meet the rich king. At the same time, not everyone they meet is their friend – some are actually uBubi’s workers who initially overhear a conversation the girls are having about their plans while traveling. They tell uBubi and he does everything in his power to prevent them getting to the sea – because once they get there they will cross over to where uNaAnna is. He hates her and is the reason why she had to leave Africa in the first place. He thought he had got rid of her for good and now these children are trying to bring her back! “No way” – he’s not going to allow that to happen. If she comes back, she will heal people using nature and share her wisdom with others and they will get rid of him and destroy him. So he does everything in his power to prevent them getting to their destination.
Eventually with nature’s help, assistance from people they meet on the way, and their father’s railways friends from other countries, they get to the sea and narrowly escape the clutches of uBubi. They make it to the other side and their contact with nature once again helps them find uNaAnna. She doesn’t recognize them but they have brought their mother and father’s picture and when she sees this, she begins to weep and welcomes them. After a period of looking after their physical needs, they start catching up and tell her the bad news about what has happened. She is very sad but she knows what to do at once.
She is the maid at the king’s house and goes and asks for his help. He gives her important papers, he has signed with his friends, some money and cancels some of the debts owed by their country. They agree about the length of time she wants to be away and he sends them off with his protection. Of course, we have not seen the end of uBubi who knows his days are numbered and puts up a good fight to steal the papers from the king and kill the girls and uNaAnna. The final battle happens as they endeavour to set their father free. They win and manage to send uBubi back under the earth where his anger explodes and he erupts into a volcano before turning into a harmless mountain. The girls are reunited with their father and they go back home where his name is cleared.
UNaAnna heals mama using leaves from the guavalala tree and the family is happy again. Baba decides not to go back to his job, although his name is cleared and the gold found. Meanwhile, uNa Anna starts talking to people in the neighbourhood and people she meets – helping them with her wise words. Nature is happy again and the papers from the rich king are sent to the king of the girl’s country. Life improves and the girls are able to go back to school and Aunt Maggie is reunited with her family. After a while, uNaAnna goes back to the rich king’s country where she is a maid because she has lots of friends there and misses them. Everything ends happily ever after.
By telling this story, supporting the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, and doing all I can to address MDGs in my personal capacity in my community, I hope to make a difference.
« return.